I have a better idea
by idenlarious
Summary: Haruto's hands are cold.


A sneeze. A sniffle. A shiver.

It was a snowy afternoon, the grounds of the school were completely covered in white. It had snowed a bit while the students were in class, leaving a fresh blanket of snow behind. Tokishima Haruto stepped out of the school building into the winter wonderland, kicking some of the fresh snow with his foot. He made his way over to the gate, almost slipping on a patch of ice and grabbing onto the gate unconsciously. Just as quickly, he gasped and pulled his hand away. It was freezing, obviously. Of course a metal gate would be freezing. The problem was that Tokishima Haruto had forgotten to bring his gloves with him that day, so his hands were bare, at the mercy of the chilly weather.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat, but it wasn't quite enough as he felt another shiver up his spine.

"Tokishima Haruto." A voice suddenly spoke up from behind him. Ah, so that last shiver wasn't because of the weather.

He turned around and saw the owner of the voice, L-elf.

"Going home now, too, L-elf?" Haruto asked. He smiled at the other boy a bit awkwardly, but wasn't disappointed to see him.

"Mm." L-elf adjusted his bag and walked past Haruto, the latter following. The two of them lived in the same school dorm—they were roommates, in fact—so they typically walked to and from school unless one or the other had something else to do.

"They gave us a lot of homework today, I'll... probably need your help with math," Haruto laughed somewhat nervously.

"I see, that's fine." L-elf responded bluntly. Haruto was glad L-elf never seemed to react with frustration to Haruto's requests for help (though he _would_ sometimes get a bit frustrated when actually trying to explain things to Haruto), but he also kind of wished L-elf would once in a while act more happy to help. As his reactions were now, it still made Haruto feel like he was bothering him.

"Do you need my help with anything, L-elf?" Haruto spoke up suddenly.

"No, not really." Shot down instantly. Haruto expected it, but his head still lowered.

As they continued on, every now and then, Haruto brought his hands up to his mouth, blowing into them to warm them up before shoving them back into his pockets, but they would quickly become cold again. He sighed.

"Did you forget your gloves again?" L-elf asked.

"Agai-!? … Y-Yeah. It's okay, though." Haruto tried to brush it off with a smile. He really did have a habit of forgetting things.

"That's so like you..." L-elf trailed off, pausing for a moment. He slowly brought his own gloved hands out from his pockets, pulling the gloves off.

Haruto slowed down to a stop along with L-elf, staring at him. "Huh? What are you doing?"

"Here, you can use mine." L-elf put the gloves together, holding them out to Haruto.

"Eh!?" Haruto's shoulders tensed up in surprise. His face was already red from the cold, so the blush spreading across his cheeks may have not been so noticeable.

"N-No, that's okay, L-elf! I couldn't..." He tried to argue.

"It doesn't matter to me. Besides, we've already walked halfway, so I think it's fair enough." The other replied logically.

"... It's really okay? To share your gloves with me?" Haruto's voice was quiet.

"I told you it's fine." L-elf jerked his hand forward, insisting Haruto take the gloves.

Haruto stared down at the pair of gloves for a moment. Eventually, he looked up and smiled softly back at L-elf.

"Thanks, L-elf, but I think I have a better idea." He grabbed the gloves at last.

"A better idea?" L-elf raised his eyebrows in curiosity, but they quickly furrowed as Haruto took his hand. "What are you—"

"Here, you wear one," Haruto sloppily put one glove back on L-elf's hand. "And I'll wear the other." He then put the other glove on one of his own hands, smiling at L-elf after.

The silver haired boy simply stared back at the other dumbfounded. Tokishima Haruto's stupidity couldn't be rivaled, he thought. He sighed, fixing the glove on his hand.

"This is useless, one hand is still bare, now they'll just be at different temperatures." Which probably didn't matter much, but Haruto's actions forced L-elf to spout some sort of excuse. He didn't want it to become obvious he didn't mind Haruto's idea so much.

"That's okay, we can improvise. Like... um, like this."

The next thing L-elf knew, Haruto was gently grabbing his bare hand with his own. L-elf couldn't help but flinch a bit, his eyes widening slightly as he looked up at the other boy. Haruto was looking away from both L-elf and their hands, but there was a sheepish smile on his face.

"Th... This way, we can keep our... other hands warm... r-right?" Haruto glanced back at L-elf only with his eyes. The latter's expression twitched a bit, not answering right away.

Tokishima Haruto's stupidity definitely couldn't be rivaled, he thought again. That sweet stupidity was almost infectious, he felt. The pressure welling up in his chest was clear on that.

L-elf turned away, but the hand Haruto had grabbed slowly returned the gesture. It should have been cold, but all he felt was warmth.

"You're an idiot."

"W-What? Why—"

He refused to admit Tokishima Haruto's idea was a complete success.


End file.
